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Kenyan banker James Mwangi, chief executive of Equity Group Holdings, saw the value of his stake in the lender rise by $23.2 million in the third quarter of 2026, as its shares climbed 28.5% on the Nairobi Securities Exchange.
Mwangi owns 127,809,180 Equity Group shares, about 3.4% of the company. The stock closed at 82.50 Kenyan shillings on July 1 and at 106 shillings on Sept. 29. Billionaires.Africa calculations show the rise lifted the value of his stake from $81.3 million to $104.5 million.
The Kenyan shilling was stable at about 129.7 per dollar throughout the quarter, so the gain came entirely from the share price.
Equity Group is Kenya's largest bank by market value. It operates in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mwangi joined the business in 1994, when it was a struggling building society, and built it into one of East Africa's biggest financial groups.
The rally followed record first-half results. Equity reported on Aug. 19 that profit after tax rose 32% to 45.5 billion shillings in the six months to June, from 34.6 billion shillings a year earlier. Profit before tax rose 39% to 57.8 billion shillings. Customer deposits grew 21% to 1.59 trillion shillings, and total assets reached 2.16 trillion shillings.
Equity's regional subsidiaries contributed 42% of banking profit after tax and held 52% of banking assets in the first half. Its Tanzanian unit increased profit by 82%.
Equity shares have been among the strongest large-company performers in Nairobi this year. The stock traded at 107.75 shillings on Sept. 24, up more than 61% since January, while the exchange's all-share index rose about 32% over the same period.
Peter Munga, Equity's founding chairman, also gained. His 13.21 million Equity shares and 69.62 million Britam shares rose in combined value by about $5.5 million during the quarter.
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